USS
S-36
At 0404 on the morning of 20 January, S-36 ran hard aground on Taka Bakang Reef. For over 24 hours, the crew battled to save the submarine. But chlorine gas, generated by her flooded forward battery, and the
hostile waves and currents of the sea
combined against them. A plain
language request for aid was sent out
and, on the morning of the 21st, a
Dutch launch, ATTLA, was dispatched from Makassar City.
By noon, the launch had taken off most of the officers and men of S-36. At 1330, the fight and the submarine were abandoned. The last to leave left her rigged to flood. The crew, transferred to SS SIBEROTE,
were taken to